Katrina drowns the City of New Orleans and the Metro area. Monday August 29 2005. Chandice Morgan 18, trudges up I-10 after being rescued from a near by flooded home by NOPD officers. (Photo by Eliot Kamenitz, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

The streets of the 9th Ward of New Orleans are flooded after Hurricane Katrina Monday, August 29, 2005. (Photo by Ted Jackson NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)
(Ted Jackson)

A woman looks at the bricks that fell on two cars in the CBD after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Monday August 29, 2005. (Photo by Alex Brandon, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Katrina drowns the City of New Orleans and the Metro area. Monday August 29 2005. The Circle food Store is circle at St. Bernard and Claiborne. (Photo by Eliot Kamenitz, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

A statue of Jesus has his toes wet on St. Claude Avenue in the lower ninth ward after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Monday August 29, 2005. (Photo by Alex Brandon, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)
(ALEX BRANDON)

Looting at the Walmart after Hurricane Katrina Tuesday, August 30, 2005. (Photo by John McCusker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

With the city inundated with Hurricane Katrina floodwaters, a FEMA rescue worker hacks a hole in a Lakeview roof in New Orleans, Monday August 29, 2005, too late to save the elderly man trapped inside and attic. (Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Looters walk away with bags of clothing August 29, 2005 from Coleman's clothing store on Earhart Blvd. during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.The flooding is the result of Hurricane Katrina. (Photo by Kathy Anderson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Power lines are knocked over near S. Derbigny street in New Orleans. The flooding is the result of Hurricane Katrina.
August 29, 2005. (Photo by Kathy Anderson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Palm trees bend and banners rip on Canal St. as Hurricane Katrina blows through New Orleans on Monday morning, August 29, 2005. (Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Hurricane Katrina strikes south east Louisiana on Monday, August 29, 2005. Kenner Police Chief Nick Congemi, left, checks out the water level on Lake Pontchartrain in Kenner. Congemi is followed by Officer John Cusimano, and Sgt. Ron Labarriere. (Photo by Rusty Costanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

A stranded motorist along the I-10 near Oak Harbor in Slidell tries to get to high ground after Hurricane Katrina passed through the area with 25 feet storm surge flooding the major east/west intersection, Monday August 29, 2005. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Legendary musician Fats Domino, center. is helped off a boat by NOPD SWAT officer Trevor Reeves right, and a New Orleans Harbor Patrol officer left, as New Orleans is hit by Hurricane Katrina rescues on are brought to the St. Claude bridge in the L9 area in New Orleans late on Monday night August 29, 2005. (Photo by Alex Brandon, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Hurricane Katrina strikes south east Louisiana on Monday, August 29, 2005. Lt. Darren Minvielle looks out of the back of a National Guard truck at the floodwater and damage on Williams Blvd. in Kenner. (Photo by Rusty Costanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Hurricane Katrina strikes south east Louisiana on Monday, August 29, 2005. Catrone Henderson of Kenner rests in a tree after walking down Loyola Dr. in Kenner looking for an open store. (Photo by Rusty Costanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)
(RUSTY COSTANZA)

Flooded homes in the Lakeview area of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Monday Aug. 29, 2005. (Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Monday, August 29, 2005, storm surge tops the levee under the Paris Road Bridge in Orleans Parish just west of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) during Hurricane Katrina. (Photo by Donald McCrosky, plant manager for Entergy at the Michoud Power Plant)

NOPD SWAT officers Lt. Cris Mandry left and Sgt. Todd Morrell right, help Henry Winter out of the water in his home at Forstall and N. Rampart Streets in the lower ninth ward after New Orleans is hit by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Monday August 29, 2005. He and his wife live at 5101 N. Rampart at the corner of Forstall. (Photo by Alex Brandon, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Two people yell to rescuers as they launch the boats to save people in the lower ninth ward after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans on Monday August 29, 2005. (Photo by Alex Brandon, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Bob Smith, left, and Keith James head up Old Spanish Trail in Slidell in a boat Monday, August 29, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina blew through. (Photo by Scott Threlkeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)
(SCOTT THRELKELD)

Their house adrift, two men await rescue on a roof in St. Bernard Parish Monday August 29, 2005 after floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina swamped their neighborhood. (Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

The Superdome in New Orleans is missing part of its roof during Hurricane Katrina, taken August 29, 2005. (Photo by John McCusker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

A family of women and children cling to posts on their front porch as rising flood waters force them to evacuate their home on St. Claude Ave in the Lower 9th Ward Aug. 29, 2005. They had tried to get into their attic space to no avail. Flood waters raging down St. Claude prevented rescuers from reaching them during the storm. (Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Th hurricane has passed and the flooding has begun Monday afternoon as three men - John Rainey, John Rainey, Jr. and Courtney Davis - help Terry Fox tug a tub full of children toward an overpass on South Broad Street, August 29, 2005. (Photo by John McCusker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive)

Most recipients will receive payments ranging from $50 to $150, although the highest payment will be about $6,000. Some checks will be withheld until their distribution is approved by
Medicaid
, Bruno said; these are are wrongful death and personal injury claims for $1,000 or more.

Those receiving the checks were notified in February of the payments. Specific awards were based on whether:

The property had no flooding, less than a foot, one to two feet, two to four feet or more than four feet.

The settlement also includes payments of death benefits, which likely represent the larger end of the payment range. The smallest payments are likely being sent to non-residents who were visiting areas covered by the settlement.

The money comes from insurance policies that the three levee districts held with the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. Three separate payment funds were set up to distribute the money, based on the boundaries of the three levee districts.

It's been eight years since the levee districts and the plaintiffs agreed to the terms of the settlement. The delay in distributing the money resulted in part from objections that were successfully raised by some claimants, who complained that plaintiff attorneys were to be paid most or all of the money. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ordering the attorney payment rules to be rewritten.

A final agreement approved in 2014 by U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle limits attorney fees to no more than $3.5 million, despite the attorneys having shown that the case cost them $13.3 million in documented expenses. Attorneys with 45 law firms involved in the settlement also agreed to forgo hourly fees as part of the original settlement.

Another delay resulted from the attempt to identify potential claimants and determining how much each would receive. Officials originally thought there might be between 200,000 and 800,000 claims, but the court-appointed disbursing agent received only 137,420 proof-of-claim forms by the April 30, 2015, filing deadline. And 13,000 of those were found to be deficient, ineligible or duplicate claims.